Port of Trieste, new decree for the duty free area has been signed

TRIESTE - Authorizations for industrial activities, reorganization of the area based on international trade needs, a certain duty free zone for operators: these are the main innovations of the ministerial decree for the regime of international free zone of the Port of Trieste.

 

The decree was signed today by Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport Graziano Delrio in the presence of Friuli Venezia Giulia president Debora Serracchiani and Zeno D’Agostino, president of Trieste Port Authority. That represents a turning point for the Port of Trieste, which puts into effect the Annex VIII to the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty. Ministry Delrio confirmed the big opportunities that now open up not only to the seaport, but to the whole region: the actual possibility to take advantage of a duty free zone, the ability to develop businesses and the opportunity to offer to the international market the only free port in Europe. “Trieste has a continental vocation – highlighted the Ministry – which is part of the city’s history and can turn into a driving force for the whole country”. Debora Serracchiani commented along the same line: the signing of the decree means for her a concrete opportunity for industrial manufacturing, transformation of goods and logistics, in a customs system which is unique in Europe. That is the end of a standstill situation, which has been waiting for an operational solution for 60 years.

 

“This is an historic turning-point – explained D’Agostino – because in less than a year we managed to achieve something that for 23 years no one had the strength, but especially the will, to fulfill. There have been conferences, declarations and manipulations, but no concrete action. Only thanks to the hard work and collaboration of president Debora Serracchiani, the Italian Customs and the Government, the turning-point of the international free port of Trieste has come. The lack of a legislation on the subject, established by the previous reform of ports but never carried out, led to a management of the free zones which lasted until now thanks to the  collaboration between the Administrations involved. Of course a situation like that could not lead to an actual development of the potentialities which this regime implicates. But today, for the port and for Trieste, a new era begins.